— BMW driveshaft and rear differential problems have caused the owner of a 2022 BMW 540i to petition the government to investigate the vehicles.
The petition alleges the rear wheels are useless when the driveshaft fails in its connection to the rear differential.
Along with the BMW 540i rear wheel failures, the vehicles could roll away.
The petitioner told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about his own experience from July. He says his 540i lost the drive connection between the driveshaft and rear wheels due to failure of the rear differential assembly.
"When the vehicle was subsequently brought to a stop on a slight incline and shifted into Park, the vehicle rolled backward. Because the differential had already failed downstream of the transmission, the parking mechanism had no effective connection to the wheels and could not hold the vehicle stationary. The vehicle was towed to a repair facility, where the differential assembly was fully replaced." — BMW 540i owner / petitioner
He goes on to say his BMW had about 58,000 miles on it when it tried to roll away, and he had no warning of a driveshaft or rear differential problem until it occurred. The owner also wants NHTSA to open a formal investigation into similar complaints about all 2017-2023 BMW 5 Series vehicles.
The petition to investigate is dated August 5, 2026, but a week later BMW announced a recall of the 2022 BMW 540i for driveshaft and rear differential problems that could cause rollaways.
The U.S. recall includes about 28,000 of these BMW vehicles:
- 2022-2026 BMW 840i
- 2022-2026 BMW 840i xDrive
- 2021-2023 BMW 540i
- 2021-2023 BMW 540i xDrive
- 2021-2023 BMW M550i xDrive
- 2024-2026 BMW 750e xDrive
CarComplaints.com will update our website with results of the petition to investigate BMW vehicles.